The Most Iconic Sidekicks in History: 10 Real Debuts, From Cervantes to Stranger Things

The most famous sidekicks in history span four centuries, not one film franchise: Sancho Panza rode beside Don Quixote in 1605, Dr Watson narrated Sherlock Holmes from 1887, and Robin has stood next to Batman since 1940. We have traced ten of the most iconic, in the order they actually turned up, with a fancy dress or costume route for the ones we can genuinely sell you.

Table of Contents

• Our pick of iconic sidekick costumes, at a glance
• The literary root: Sancho Panza and Dr Watson
• Neverland's fairy sidekick: Tinker Bell
• The comic-book era: Robin and the Dynamic Duo
• Middle-earth's real hero: Samwise Gamgee
• A galaxy far away, then Brooklyn: Chewbacca and Luigi
• Sega and Pixar go digital: Tails and Buzz Lightyear
• Shrek's swamp sidekick: Donkey
• Hawkins' newest sidekicks: Robin Buckley, Steve and Argyle
• The sidekick you wear: piggyback and ride-on costumes
• Why the sidekick usually makes the story
• Frequently asked questions

Our pick of iconic sidekick costumes, at a glance

Eight of the ten sidekicks below have a real costume you can buy from us today. The other two, Sancho Panza and Dr Watson, predate costume retail by a few centuries, so we cover them for the history rather than the fancy dress aisle, and every pack listed here is checked against its own product page, not guessed from the box art.

The literary root: Sancho Panza and Dr Watson

The sidekick is older than cinema by three centuries. Sancho Panza has been riding beside Don Quixote since Miguel de Cervantes published the novel's first part on 16 January 1605, playing the grounded, practical foil to a hero whose head is somewhere else entirely. Arthur Conan Doyle borrowed the same shape for Dr Watson, who first appeared alongside Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet in 1887 and went on to narrate most of the canon, four novels and 56 short stories, because the detective needed someone in the room to explain his thinking to.

Neither character has a costume in our range, since both belong to public-domain literature with no single rights-holder to route a product through. What they set up still holds: a hero explains nothing on his own, and someone has to be standing there for the reader to explain it to.

Neverland's fairy sidekick: Tinker Bell

Tinker Bell has been Peter Pan's sidekick since J.M. Barrie's play premiered at London's Duke of York's Theatre on 27 December 1904, though she started life as a moving light rather than a character you could see. Disney's animated Peter Pan gave her the visible, green-clad form most people picture, released in February 1953. Nearly half a century after her page debut, she is still the one who actually gets Peter and the Darling children off the ground: Peter has the plan, Tinker Bell has the fairy dust that makes it work.

Kids Disney Tinker Bell Fairy Costume

The Kids Disney Tinker Bell Fairy Costume is a dress only, so it goes on in seconds before a school World Book Day parade or a family Halloween trip to Neverland-themed fancy dress. It comes in two sizes, 3 to 4 years and S (4 to 6 years), so check the size guide before you order rather than guessing from age alone.

The comic-book era: Robin and the Dynamic Duo

Robin turned the sidekick into a permanent fixture of the superhero genre. Dick Grayson first appeared as Batman's ward in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940, and comics historian Les Daniels credits the pairing with roughly doubling sales of the Batman titles almost overnight. The pair were first called "the Dynamic Duo" in the comics the following year, a nickname the 1966 television series later made famous worldwide. We do not hold the rights to sell a Batman or Robin costume, so there is no specific product for this one; a masked crime-fighting duo is still covered generically by our Superhero Morphsuits, cape and all.

Middle-earth's real hero: Samwise Gamgee

J.R.R. Tolkien introduced Samwise Gamgee alongside Frodo Baggins when The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954. In a 1951 letter to Milton Waldman, Tolkien described Sam, in passing, as "the chief hero" of the book: Frodo carries the Ring, but Sam carries Frodo, cooks the meals, and gets them both to Mordor and back. We do not hold the rights to a Lord of the Rings costume, so there is no product link here either; the point still travels, since the character doing the carrying is not always the one whose name is in the title.

A galaxy far away, then Brooklyn: Chewbacca and Luigi

Chewbacca became Han Solo's co-pilot aboard the Millennium Falcon when Star Wars opened in 1977, an eight-foot Wookiee who says almost nothing because the growl and the crossbow do the talking. We do not hold the rights to this one either, so it is another name-only entry.

Luigi has had a longer road to recognition. He first showed up on the Mario Bros. Game & Watch handheld in early 1983, months before the arcade game most people remember him from, and spent the next three decades as the permanent number two, right down to the green outfit that exists purely to distinguish him from his brother. Nintendo finally gave him top billing in 2013, naming it the "Year of Luigi" for his 30th anniversary. We do hold the Nintendo rights, so browse the full Nintendo costumes range, including our Super Mario costume picks, for the current Luigi options.

Sega and Pixar go digital: Tails and Buzz Lightyear

Tails made his debut in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in October 1992, a two-tailed fox who flies by spinning both tails like a helicopter rotor rather than jumping like everyone else. His full name, Miles "Tails" Prower, is a pun on "miles per hour", which is either the best or worst sidekick name in this whole list depending on your tolerance for puns.

Kids Sonic Movie Tails Costume

The Kids Sonic Movie Tails Costume is a jumpsuit with a detachable hood, so it works as a full head-to-toe look or a lighter option once the school hall warms up. It is available in M (7 to 8 years); check the size guide against your child's height before ordering, since one size will not stretch to fit every age group.

Three years later, Toy Story gave the sidekick idea its own genre first: released in November 1995, it was the first feature film made entirely with computer-generated imagery, and Buzz Lightyear was the swaggering space ranger who spent the whole film learning he was a toy, not the hero he thought he was. That fall from delusion to loyal number two is one of the more recognisable sidekick arcs of the 1990s.

Kids Disney Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Costume

The Kids Disney Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Costume is a one-piece jumpsuit built to survive a full afternoon of "to infinity and beyond" shouted at increasing volume. It is available in M (7 to 8 years); every MorphCostumes design is measured across 30+ points, not just guessed from a size chart, so check the guide before you buy.

Shrek's swamp sidekick: Donkey

Donkey talked his way into Shrek's swamp, and the audience's affection, when Shrek was released in 2001, a film that went on to win the very first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature the following year. Where Watson explains and Sam carries, Donkey simply will not stop narrating, and the film is funnier for it. We do not hold the rights to this one, so Donkey earns his place on the list rather than on a product page.

Hawkins' newest sidekicks: Robin Buckley, Steve and Argyle

Stranger Things gave us three sidekicks in one show rather than one. Robin Buckley joined Steve Harrington behind the counter at Scoops Ahoy when season 3 landed in July 2019, and by season 4 in 2022 the pair had moved on to the Family Video store, joined by Jonathan's laid-back friend Argyle at Surfer Boy Pizza. Season 4's first volume drew 286.8 million hours viewed globally in its premiere week, the biggest-ever premiere week for an English-language series on Netflix, making this the most recent entry on the list, and the one with the biggest audience behind it.

Girls Robin Video Stop Stranger Things Costume

The Girls Robin Video Stop Stranger Things Costume includes the jacket with an attached vest and tie over a twill-print Video Stop uniform shirt, so there is only one piece to get right on the way out of the door. It comes in L (10 to 12 years); check the size guide against your child's height and chest before ordering.

Kids Steve Video Stop Stranger Things Costume

The Kids Steve Video Stop Stranger Things Costume pairs a striped collared polo (with faux buttons built in, nothing to fasten) with the same green Video Stop vest as Robin's, so the two work as a genuine matching pair for a sibling or friend group. It is available in L (10 to 12 years).

Men's Argyle Stranger Things Costume

The Men's Argyle Stranger Things Costume is the adult of the trio: a shirt with an attached faux tee, worn over patterned trousers, built to look like the real Surfer Boy Pizza uniform rather than a rough approximation of it. It comes in L (42 to 46in chest), so measure before you order rather than going by your usual off-the-peg size.

The sidekick you wear: piggyback and ride-on costumes

Some costumes build the whole hero-and-sidekick idea into a single outfit. A piggyback or ride-on costume gives you a "carried" second character strapped to your front and back, so you turn up as a double act on your own, a shape none of the pop-culture pairings above can copy. Costumes built this way, piggyback and ride-on styles, have made up roughly 6% of our UK costume sales since April 2026, a genuinely popular format rather than a novelty nobody buys.

Wrestler Piggyback Costume

The Wrestler Piggyback Costume is a self-stuff shell (you fill the "carried" legs yourself, stuffing not included), built as one size to fit adults from 5'4" to 6'4", with an adjustable waist from 28in to 48in via laces. If wrestling costumes are the theme, the rest of our WWE wrestling costumes and our best WWE costume picks cover the solo grapplers.

Men's Horse Costume

The Men's Horse Costume is a single-wearer jumpsuit and padded hood, not a two-person pantomime horse (the classic British panto-horse format, usually traced to an 1885 act at London's Royal Holborn theatre, needs two performers front and back). This one works solo or as the "steed" half of a cowboy-and-horse pairing, and comes in M, L or XL. It takes a cold hand wash and an air dry rather than a machine-wash cycle, the honest care answer for every fabric costume we make, not just this one.

Why the sidekick usually makes the story

The sidekick usually makes the story work because the hero cannot do it alone: someone has to explain the plan, carry the bag, fly the ship or just stand there being funny while the plot catches its breath. A few outgrow the word entirely, Bucky Barnes eventually becomes Captain America, Kid Flash eventually becomes The Flash, which is really just the sidekick idea taken to its logical end: the understudy is good enough to headline. MorphCostumes runs over 500,000 quality checks a year across the range, Buzz Lightyear, Tinker Bell and the rest of our costumes here included, regardless of whether the character on the box is the hero or the one standing next to them.

Frequently asked questions